DISTINGUISHED SERVICE CROSS

1st. Sgt. Herman L. Trent

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMYHeadquarters, United States Army VietnamAPO San Francisco 96375

GENERAL ORDERSNUMBER 150

AWARD OF THE DISTINGUISHED SERVICE CROSS

TC 320. The following AWARD is announced.

TRENT, HERMAN L. FIRST SERGEANT United States Army Company B 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry, 3d Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile), APO 96383.Awarded: Distinguished Service CrossDate of action: 22 July 1968Theater: Republic of VietnamAuthority: By direction of the President, under the provisions of the Act of Congress, approved 25 July 1963.

Reason: For extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations involving conflict with an armed hostile force in the Republic of Vietnam: First Sergeant Trent distinguished himself by exceptionally valorous actions on 22 July 1968 while serving as First Sergeant and platoon leader with an infantry company on combat operations near Cu Chi. As his unit was crossing a rice paddy, it came under heavy fire from well entrenched North Vietnamese troops. Sergeant Trent immediately organized his platoon and began returning fire on the enemy positions. Realizing that the machine gun positions would have to be destroyed before they could advance, he ordered the platoon to pull back with the wounded and regroup with the main body of the company. Remaining behind, Sergeant Trent then moved through the fusillade with three other men and annihilated several enemy positions with hand grenades. Using his radio he called in air strikes from a site less than fifty meters from the targets. He then entered a destroyed hostile bunker and remained in it for six hours, directing the ordnance nearly on top of his position. When he noticed that some of the better camouflaged emplacements remained untouched by the air strikes, he crawled through a nearby hedgerow and down the line of enemy bunkers, killing three snipers. As darkness fell the North Vietnamese fire ceased. Returning to the rice paddy, he discovered a member of his company who was seriously wounded and carried him more than four hundred meters to the unit's night defensive position. First Sergeant Trent's extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.